In person, the 2015 Dodge Charger has serious presence

In photos, it looks like Dart writ large, but it's more than that.

Under the skin, the 2015 Dodge Charger is mostly business as usual. That's not a bad thing: The R/T and R/T Road & Track models (no relation) still rock the 5.7-liter Hemi as standard equipment. The eight-speed auto now is available across the line. And the Pentastar model even gets a Rallye package that ups power to an even 300 horses and 264 lb-ft of torque thanks to an intake, exhaust, and an engine remap. So far, so good.

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But the skin is most of the story here. And the thing is, in pictures, before seeing it in the flesh, we were ready to write it off as a scaled-up Dart. In person, the story is a little different. Sure, that's where this language comes from, but it's not really derivative or unoriginal when grafted onto the large Charger. Instead, it's slick and muscular, at least in the dark red of the show car. Mission accomplished.

A small but cool touch is the addition of the Performance Pages app to the Uconnect in the top-flight Road & Track (again, no relation) R/T model. The upshot there is active launch control with an RPM setting, and of course performance gauges and data readouts.